Forum Topic

Earwax & NHS (or not)

I thought I ask here: you guys have always great advice.My ear is blocked, tried the ear drops for weeks and it doesn't help.So I called Chiswick Health Centre to book appointment.They basically said, I would have to help myself OR book an appointment with a private (!) GP to do Ear Syringing.Any advice?

Katja Urban ● 1494d20 Comments

Like podiatry, ear syringing is reserved now for the most needy cases afaik.You can buy a syringing kit online,there are several options.

Keith Iddon ● 1494d

Yes, yet another service that we used to get routinely that has now been dumped. Along with skin tag removal, varicose veins etc. Bloody disgraceful.

Vanessa Smith ● 1494d

I normally use Earex Advance ear drops to break down the wax and then a small rubber syringe to squirt warm water into the ear and wash out any wax.  I think you can get Earex + syringe in a kit.But if your wax is resisting all your attempts, you might do better to use a microsuction service.  Specsavers offer this at £55 for one or both ears. I think Hearing Well at 40 Chiswick High Road also offer it.

Richard Jennings ● 1494d

Specsavers is fully booked till End of September due to NHS not doing it anymore and referring everyone to other services.I will now visit West London Pharmacy, they do it for £40 (one ear). 154 Chiswick High Rd, Chiswick London W4 1PRTel: 0208 994 1702enquiries@westlondonpharmacy.comThank you everybody

Katja Urban ● 1494d

If you can get there, Dumlers Pharmacy in East Sheen do micro suction for £35  per ear. Parking also easy on side roads ( I took my dad there and very helpful).

Vanessa Cobb ● 1494d

"reserved now for the most needy cases"It isn't even done for the most needy any more you just get told to put drops in your ears or to use Hearing Well at 40 Chiswick High Road Chiswick, London W4 1TE  020 8994 6966

Bernard Allen ● 1493d

I've used Hearing Well at 40 Chiswick High Road, very effective and good general advice. A very good service, OK with a cost, but they solved the problem.

Michael Preece ● 1493d

Remember for some people syringing is not suitable. Vacumn treatment is necessary. Once again you have to pay as not all surgeries do it. Of course it is true less and less is available on the NHS. An optician once told me the government pre covid  increased the size of cataracts was increased before they qualified for NHS treatment. NHS was said to be free at point of use, well if you can find an NHS dentist you pay, even for a check up.

Nicholas Beard ● 1493d

When are we going to understand that the NHS can not handle the millions of procedures we expect. Minor non life threatening procedures will be first to go and although we have to pay a small amount much more efficient all round to use a local private provider and not waste precious NHS time who have much more urgent patient needs.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1493d

'Millions of procedures'? A figure of speech only, I assume.

Keith Iddon ● 1493d

“When are we going to understand that the NHS can not handle the millions of procedures we expect. Minor non life threatening procedures will be first to go and although we have to pay a small amount much more efficient all round to use a local private provider and not waste precious NHS time who have much more urgent patient needs.”There are plenty of one nation conservatives who believe in the health service but there you have the right wing strategy in a nutshell.  Underfund the health service for a decade and then when it can’t cope claim the only solution is a private one.

Christopher Shea ● 1493d

Complete rubbish, we pour billions into the system and it still can’t cope with everything we expect. Something has to give…..

Jayne Thorburn ● 1493d

Jayne - are you saying that you're not a one nation conservative?

Phil Kay ● 1493d

Phil I am a realist, we pump billions into the NHS and we expect to get an appt within a week or 2 for minor ailments which can be painful but not life threatening it is just not reality and we need to wake up to that fact. Even if we forget about covid which has resulted in crazy waiting time I would prefer the most urgent cases got seen quickly. So if that means minor ailments have to be dealt with privately for a small price so be it. If people want to wait that’s up to them.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1493d

If one were to ask 100 people, there'd be 100 different views, we all have different priorities and probably feel that we're all realists.  I ask the question because the priorities you espouse seem like those of a one nation conservative and wonder if that's correct?

Phil Kay ● 1493d

I would imagine £40 to someone in a decently paid job will not make much difference, but it is a heck of a lot to many people.It is what some people spend on food for a week.

Keith Iddon ● 1493d

All the more reason why if you can afford £40 to sort a minor ailment do it, let those that really need the appt because they can afford £40 have it, very simple we have to have a grown up & honest conversation about the NHS. In todays world our expectations our unrealistic.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1493d

In the ten years following 2010 NHS expenditure fell as a percentage of gdp and have only risen back to 2010 levels due to pandemic expenditure.

Christopher Shea ● 1493d

20/21 we spent £192 billion on NHS services that is a staggering amount of money. As I say we need a grown up conversation about what we expect from the NHS. If you can afford £40 for a simple procedure then pay it. The same procedure on the NHS (guessing) would cost hundreds.

Jayne Thorburn ● 1492d

I had varicose veins treated on the NHS. I didn’t know I had them. I had a small. niggle in the back of my leg, which I still have!!  and the surgery, carried out last  November has left me with a tender spot where they put the cannula  ( I think) To this day I wonder how I got put forward for the surgery

Maggie Dodge ● 1492d